Introduce Primary Students to Design Thinking

This course been developed in partnership with Visy. For over 60 years Visy has been striving for sustainability, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill by collecting recyclable materials and recycling them into new paper and packaging products. Click here to find out more about Visy and their innovative work in recovering and transforming recyclable materials into new products to preserve our earth’s precious resources.

Design Thinking is a process for creative problem solving, which uses a designer’s toolkit to find innovative solutions to big challenges. This course will walk you through the five stages of the Design Thinking process and help you find avenues to use it in the primary curriculum.

This course is mapped to the Professional Standards for Teachers. It is accredited for teacher professional development hours in the following states and territories:

Graduate Teacher – all states and territories
2.1.1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.
3.3.1 Include a range of teaching strategies.
3.4.1 Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.

Proficient Teacher – all states and territories
2.1.2 Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities.
3.3.2 Select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.
3.4.2 Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning.

Highly Accomplished Teacher – all states and territories except for NSW
2.1.3 Support colleagues using current and comprehensive knowledge of content and teaching strategies to develop and implement engaging learning and teaching programs.
3.3.3 Support colleagues to select and apply effective teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.
3.4.3 Assist colleagues to create, select and use a wide range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning.

This course is accredited by TQI for 2 hours professional development for teachers in the ACT.

Cool Australia is endorsed to provide the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Registered Professional Development for teachers accredited at Proficient Teacher.

Chris Vella from Cool Australia is your course teacher. He has worked in the education sector for over 10 years as a classroom teacher and educational consultant. He has also worked at Western Sydney University. Chris loves getting creative with education and supporting others to do the same.

Melanie Rowland is an experienced teacher who is passionate about driving change to create high-quality learning experiences for students. She constantly reflects on and develops her own practice so she can adapt and grow to suit the ever-changing context of education. While still continuing to work in a range of schools, Melanie is also extending herself beyond school to mentor other teachers, write teaching resources and engage with the broader educational community.

As a not-for-profit organisation all revenue from our Professional Development courses is reinvested into providing teachers with the resources to become the designers of exceptional learning.